How have people responded to listening to music in their everyday lives? We have access to plenty of professional critical opinion, but what new insights are offered by an examination of the unsolicited observations and feelings of ordinary listeners – what can we learn about the effects of music, its cultural value and the manner of its consumption in a range of social, historical and geographical contexts?

The Listening Experience Database Project focuses on the building and interrogation of a large database of personal listening experiences, with the aim of establishing a more robust evidential base for the exploration of such questions.

As we come to the end of the first phase of the project, the conference is an opportunity to take stock of progress to date, to look ahead to future developments, and – crucially – to examine some of the themes and approaches to the study of music that may be supported by the mass of evidence of listening experiences that the database is accumulating.

Proposals are invited for papers of up to 20 minutes (followed by 10 minutes of discussion), and panels or roundtables of up to 60 minutes.

We are interested in receiving proposals on a wide range of topics unrestricted by period, musical genre or culture. As a guide, you may want to consider some of the themes which already interest the project team: